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A Night At The Movies: "The Town"

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see the new Ben Affleck film "The Town."  Initially, when I saw the previews for "The Town", I thought it looked like your average, run in the mill crime genre film.  Films with ski masks and bank robberies were nothing new in my world and not groundbreaking film making ideas.  Initially, I had no intention of seeing this film.  That is until it got a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and rave reviews from even the most unseasoned film-goers in my life.

I would like to go off on a small digression about Ben Affleck.  I would like to say "I told you so" to all of those people who said Ben Affleck was a horrible actor and had no place in Hollywood.  Sure he was in horrible films with miserable acting roles such as "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "Jersey Girl," "Daredevil," and who can forget the worst movie ever that practically destroyed his acting career "Gigli."  However, Ben Affleck has been in many other films that have been completely overlooked and are, in fact, good movies where Ben Affleck shines as an actor:

1.  All of Kevin Smith's early films ("Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," arguably "Dogma")
2.  "Good Will Hunting"
3.  "Boiler Room"
4.  "Paycheck"
5.  His roles in "Smokin' Aces" and "He's Just Not That Into You" I thought were wonderfully played
6.  "State of Play"
7.  Finally, "The Town"

Also, his directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" was great and was a wonderful prelude to "The Town."

So for all of those people who hated Ben Affleck up until now, I must once again say "I told you so" and "Ben, I got your back."

Now, "The Town" was very good and exceeded my expectations substantially.  While the ending was a bit obvious and the love story sub-plot was a bit weak, the film itself had heart and authenticity that only a skilled writer/director could pull off.  The opening scene was thrilling and fantastically paced and shot.  The timing of the titles were impeccable and the casting was all spot on.  Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") was unbelievable as was (suprisingly) Blake Lively, who manages to step out of her typecasted, pretty-girl, gossip-girl role, and plays a dysfunctional drug addict from the slums of Boston.  Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") was incredible, as I expected.  Rebecca Hall ("Vicky, Christina, Barcelona") was also great, but not as good as Renner, Lively and Hamm.  And last but not least, Ben Affleck, whose acting abilities really shined in this film.  He played his character unbelievably well.  His character was similar in tone to Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damons roles in "The Departed" but I would argue that Affleck's acting ability in "The Town" blew Leo's and Damon's performances out of the water. 

The direction by Affleck also deserves a quick mention.  Each scene in "The Town" was shot perfectly.  The shoot-out scenes seemed real and not too staged.  In fact, the only other shoot-out scene that I can remember being as good as "The Town" is the bank robbery finale in "Heat," which is by far the best shoot-out scene in the history of film.  The pacing of "The Town" was perfect and I thought the flashbacks to Hall walking to the water after the opening bank robbery scene were wonderful touches to the emotional depth of the film.

So this reviewer would like to give "The Town" 4/5 stars.  Great stuff, Benny.

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N E W S F L A S H

Sufjan Steven's new album "The Age of Adz" is incredible.  I am not a fan of Steven's previous albums, including the celebrated "Come On Feel the Illinoise!"  Too folksy and too much over-the-top orchestration.

However, "Age of Adz" is a completely different direction and sound for Stevens.  While still encompassing his folk-like demeanor, the sound is very electronic.  I mentioned to someone earlier today that "Age of Adz" sounds like a combination of "Fleet Foxes" and "Kid A."  The combination is classic and has given me a whole new perspective on Sufjan Stevens.  If this is his new approach to his music, I foresee myself buying a lot more of his albums in the future.

  

Well done, Sufjan, well done.

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Wire

My current flavor of the week:

Wire - Pink Flag

Wire - Chairs Missing

Wire - 154

"Pink Flag" can be described as a fusion between The Ramones, The Clash and the Sex Pistols.  This is fun music to listen to and can easily make its way into any party playlist.

However, "Chairs Missing" and "154" have a very different sound then "Pink Flag".

"Chairs Missing" is somewhat similar to "Pink Flag" but has a more ambient sound to be it, arguably similar to Brian Eno (as some critics have noted).  However, I think that "Chairs Missing" has a remarkable resemblance to Joy Division and Iggy Pop's early solo work (The Idiot).  While dark, there is a catchy-ness to it that doesn't let the dark side of the songs weigh the album down.

"154" is even darker and more ambient-sounding then "Chairs Missing."  "154" almost sounds like the child of David Bowie's "Low" and Public Image Ltd.'s "Second Edition."  Or maybe even Joy Division's "Closer" and Nine Inch Nail's "The Downward Spiral."  While I hated "Second Edition" and I am not the biggest fan of Nine Inch Nail's, there is something very appealing to me about "154".  It's probably the subtle hints of the punk-rock genre, something extremely prevalent in "Pink Flag." 

Awesome, awesome tunes!

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Top Five Strangest Things That Happened To Me Since Friday

(In no particular order)

1.  Observed a husband and wife at the doctors office.  The husband received a phone call and proceeded to talk extremely loudly in the waiting room, completely unaware that he was in a public place.  His wife thought it would be a good idea to berate her husband in public, telling him to get off of the "f*cking phone, godd*mnit."  To make matters even more humorous, the husband decided to yell at his wife right back.  This continued for about ten minutes in a jam-packed waiting room.

2.  I was approached by a man in a Che Guevara hat and t-shirt who looked EXACTLY like Fidel Castro asking me if I would like to purchase a book in support of "Jews For Jesus."

3.  Observed citizens from every sovereign state in the world at IKEA in Long Island.  I didn't know whether I was supposed to buy furniture or sit in on United Nations Human Rights conference.

4.  Convinced myself that my apartment wast infested with bedbugs because I woke up with at least 10 bug bites on my arms and shoulders.  However, to my hypochondriac-like embarrassment, after going to the doctor and calling an exterminator, all these bites turned out to be were mosquito bites.  

5.  Realized that there is a man across the courtyard from my building who is a legitimate window-peeper.  Every morning while I am changing this guy looks directly at me, literally eye-contact.  He stands at his window and literally just stares at me until I get creeped-out enough to shut my blinds.  F'in New York City.

And for fans of "Jersey Shore"....

Au revoir,

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Purchase These Albums Immediately

   

Daft Punk - Homework

Daft Punk - Discovery

Kraftwerk - Tour De France Soundtracks

Aphex Twin - Windowlicker EP

Joy Division - Closer

Happy Friday, friends.

Prepstar

Post-Season Baseball

 What the F?  Who is this guy?  Freaking ridiculous.

Lets go Yankees!

And for everyone who is not a baseball fan (shame on you), here is a very good album to listen to tonight:

New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies

Enjoy,
Prepstarr

Organizing Your iTunes Library For Dummies

I think I might write a book like this some day.

My iTunes library is officially organized to perfection.  All songs are organized and spelled correctly with the proper punctuation, under the correct artist, under the correct album, under the correct genre, with the correct album artwork. 

It is a marvelous sight and I plan on admiring it for at least an hour tonight.

To ensure that I leave my readers this evening with more than just me patting myself on the back, I would like to suggest an album that is an oldie but a goody that I recently re-discovered:

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express.

And for my upcoming playlist I will be venturing into the work of Can with their album "Ege Bamyasi."  I am excited about listening to this album because Steven Malkmus, the lead singer of Pavement (one of the best bands ever), stated that he listened to this album every night for three years of his life.  So I think it is an understatement for me to say that my hopes are high for this album (hence, it better be awesome).

(That's some freaking weird album artwork.  Hopefully the album will be more interesting then Okra.)

That's all for today.  Nighty Night.

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John Cusack

John Cusack is an actor that I have never been particularly fond of.

 

I had always correlated Cusack with films like “Say Anything” where he portrayed that shy, yet so-called deep, young heartthrob searching for love in the chaotic 80s and early 90s.  All the women in my life associate Cusack with these roles, and they absolutely love him for it.  I, on the other hand, didn’t ever like Cusack, and could never really understand why people liked  Cusack.  The guy to me was a more serious version of Michael Cera, without the humor, good comedic timing and youthfulness.

 

However, my opinion about Cusack changed when I discovered the film “Being John Malkovich.”  I was a little late to the Spike Jonze party, and it took me about three years after Jonze started becoming popular to see his first film, “Being John Malkovich.”  The film is smart, funny, clever and has an all-star cast.  But what I remember most about BJM is how surprised I was with the role Cusack played.  In this film he was not a young, insecure, shy, yet deep, heartthrob.  His role in BJM was completely different, and I loved it.  

After viewing "Being John Malkovich" I decided to overlook my initial negative attitude towards Cusack and give the guy another chance.  I mean, come on, I was being a little hard on him and everyone deserves a second chance.

Soon thereafter, I ran across the Steven Frears' film “The Grifters.”  Watching “The Grifters” served me two purposes: first, it gave me the opportunity to watch Cusack again in a role unlike his previous earlier roles, and second, it allowed me to indulge in my new film noir fetish, a film genre that I think is so underappreciated that it is almost criminal.  Ultimately, I loved “The Grifters” and I once again loved Cusack in this film.  His character is a smart con-artist, and like BJM, Cusack plays the role perfectly.

I later found another Steven Frears’ film starring John Cusack entitled “High Fidelity.”  I think most people have heard of this film.  However, due to the film's horrible advertising and marketing campaign, everyone thinks this film is a romantic comedy, which fortunately it is not.  Sure it has some romance to it, but it is definitely not a rom com.

As an initial point, "High Fidelity" is FANTASTIC!  The screenplay is based on the cult novel by Nick Hornby and it was adapted to the screen beautifully.  The supporting cast is also fantastic.  I am usually pretty impartial about Jack Black, but I liked him in this film.  Black’s quirky personality matches his character very well.  And how can you not love Tim Robbins playing a supporting role as a conflict-management specialist with a hippie-like disposition.  Such a nice touch.

But the real star of this film is Cusack.  If I had to guess, Frears made this film with Cusack in mind.  Cusack talks a lot in this film, yet you never get sick of his voice.  You see his face in every scene, yet you never tire of it.  He argues, yells and complains 85% of the film and yet you enjoy every second of it.  To me, this is Cusack's finest role and an all-star of a movie.   

AND THE MUSIC, my god, the music in the film is PHENOMENAL.  And not just the soundtrack, but the references to music, the display of album covers, everything relating to music is awesome.  I mean seriously, how many times do you see references to Brian Eno or The Beta Band in mainstream films.  It blew my mind!

So looking back now, I feel a bit foolish about criticizing John Cusack and his abilities as an actor.  I am sorry, John, and I hope we can be friends some day.

Sincerely,

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Rosebud

A perfect day for one of my favorite films ever...

 
Surely a classic, and a film that everyone should watch at least three times in their lives.  Orsen Welles is in top form as both an actor and director, and "Citizen Kane" is one of the only films where Welles had complete artistic control over the direction and editing of the film itself. 

Fantastic cinema and surely one of the most influential films of all time!

Next up, "Mr. Arkadin."  While "Mr. Arkadin" is comprised of very similar themes as "Citizen Kane," "Mr. Arkadin" was a film that was taken away from Welles after being filmed and was butchered by the studio.  However, the film illustrates Welles' amazing technique as a director, and while the film is 55 years old it holds up very well and doesn't seem too dated. 

Hopefully, I will get the opportunity to view this amazing film again this weekend!

Signing off.

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